Normally when we think of felt we think of the flat stuff in loads of different colours that you treat as fabric, needle felting can be however very sculptural and this is what our workshop on Monday 26th November will be concentrating on. It’s a craft that is both suitable for both total beginners and the more experienced.

Needle felting is the process of interlocking wool fibres by stabbing it with a barbed needle. The barbs catch the scales on the fibre and cause them to tangle and bind together. Simply put, it is felting without water. The unique property of wool fibre allows it to “stick” to itself causes the wool to felt, without the need for soap and water.

A needle felting mat and a feltmaking needle will be used in order to create these 3 dimensional shapes. Felting needles are straight needles with barbs cut along the shaft. When repeatedly pushed into a tuft of wool fibres, the barbs pull the fibres down, locking and compressing them together. This felting process makes a big ball of fluffy wool condense down into a denser mass of wool. Jay will how us all the different techniques in order to shape our sculptural pieces and how to add things like beads and buttons. I found this You tube clip here on How to needle felt a Pumpkin – useful to take a look as it shows the basic process visually.

So if this craft sounds like fun why not come and join us on 26th November? For £15 Jay Kendall from Knitwit Originals will show us the techniques to make two Christmas decorations. Choose from baubles (which will be unbreakable!), Christmas pudding or a Snowman (the knitted hat and scarf is not included). She will provide us all with the basic equipment to do this in the two hour workshop and will have extra items to sell should you feel inspired to do more at home.

***********This is the last call for this workshop **************

– there are limited spaces available (its a small class) as Jay wants to give each participant more individual tuition. Please email us at makehorsham@yahoo.co.uk for a booking form or for more details.

[…] Jay Kendall of Knitwit Originals is back with us by popular demand after the successful Christmas Decorations workshop in November. This time she is going to show us how to make a small vessel or bowl (approx. 6” wide by 5” high) using the wet felting technique. You will use merino wool fibres and some silk fibres all from a range of pastel colours. Wet felting is a wonderfully tactile art which allows you to build shapes. Jay will then show us how to needle felt some small easter eggs from the same fibres and how to needle felt a simple decorative pattern on them to place inside the bowl. The bowls would also make a lovely gift filled with sweets or even buttons. For more details on what needle felting is please see our previous post here. […]